How can weight discrimination make obesity worse?
Weight discrimination can make obesity worse; obese people often feel uncomfortable in their doctor's office or hospital, and they are less prone to seek preventive care. Watch weight loss specialist Caroline Apovian, MD, explain this concept.
Transcript
Studies have shown that people with obesity visit the doctor less often.
And not only that. When they do develop cancer, it is diagnosed at a much later stage.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Well, weight discrimination makes obesity even worse because people with obesity feel uncomfortable.
Many of them feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in their doctor's offices and even in the hospital because
of not just the doctors but nurses and the staff making them feel unwelcome.
So if you walk into a doctor's office and the front desk looks at you with that look like, [SCOFFS],,
here that person comes again, that person who is slovenly. And if they could only stop eating,
they wouldn't be in the doctor's office. So the idea of attributing every medical problem
that that person has due to their weight, that is not the case. So what we're doing to try and stop
that will help the health of that patient. People need to come and see their doctor for their annual screening.
To prevent colon cancer and prevent cervical cancer and breast cancer and other cancers,
you need to have your preventive screening. But if you are too humiliated to go to see your doctor because, you know,
you can't get on the scale because it doesn't weigh you, and you walk in and everybody treats you badly,
then you're not going to want to go to the doctor. You're not going to want to get your screens. And studies have shown that people with obesity
visit the doctor less often. And not only that. When they do develop cancer, it is diagnosed at a much later stage than lean people.
And then they die of that cancer more frequently than those who are lean because they presented so late, because they weren't
getting preventive care. And so there are a lot of cancers that are attributed to obesity.
Some may be really attributed to obesity. But others could be just because the patient doesn't see the doctor.
That's devastating to the health care industry and devastating for the patient. [AUDIO LOGO]
obesity
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